


Phantom Pain

by Prochytes



Category: Ant-Man (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-27 22:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20053888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prochytes/pseuds/Prochytes
Summary: The Wasp helps the Ghost find some peace of mind, in traditional superheroine fashion.





	Phantom Pain

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for _Ant-Man and the Wasp_. Some angst.

Ava really needed to stop falling for the “Wounded Gazelle” thing from anyone with Pym DNA.

Hope had come off worse again in that last flurry, taking more jabs than she managed to land. She looked woozy, as she reeled away. Ava closed, fast and unwary. The sharp stab of frustration at her opponent’s weakness _(stay in the fight, Wasp, God damn you; don’t go down)_ was immediately displaced by the solid upper-cut that Hope, exploiting the hole in her defences, sent to her chin. Ava staggered back, mouth full of copper, legs full of jelly.

Now that – that right there – was what she was talking about.

Hope searched for a hold as she pressed her advantage. The Wasp had been looking to grapple more and more as the match progressed. The calculation was obvious: Ava had proved to be the better boxer; but maybe she lacked practice at wrestling without her Get Out of Jail Free Card. To the Ghost, an opponent’s grip was usually, well, immaterial.

Hope (Ava suspected) had cottoned on early to a well-kept secret. Ava’s power did dirty things to gravity; this was why she didn’t get up close and personal with the Moho every time she went out of phase. With practice, she had learnt to gamble on mass’s exchange rate and empower her punches, much as Hope’s resizing could give her own strikes more bang for their buck through the canny arbitrage of force. Without phasing, Ava was strong, but she wasn’t superhuman. It was costing her, now, to match Hope’s muscle.

The burn of beleaguered sinew spread across Ava’s arms and shoulders. The world narrowed to the strain of the gruelling stalemate. This was how it was meant to be.

But then Hope’s eyes widened, and the Wasp released her grip.

“Enough,” she said. “You win. Congratulations.”

Ava still tasted blood. She swallowed. “We’re not done.”

“Yes; we are.” Hope shrugged. “You’re faster – not by much, but by enough. You’ve… you’ve got more combat experience. I doubt that there’s anything I have you couldn’t counter.”

“Fight me.”

“No.”

_ “Fight me.”_

“Not happening.” Hope picked up a towel. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m as competitive as the next woman – as the next twenty, even. If this bout were just about who’s better without her powers, I’d still be in there swinging. But you don’t want victory, Ava; you want pain. And I won’t blithely give you that.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, Hope.”

“Not my pain,” Hope’s eyes were steady as she mopped her brow. “Yours.”

Ava slumped. “Is it really that obvious?”

“I’m afraid so.” Hope sighed. “Ava, why? You were in pain for most of your life. Why would you want it back?”

Ava bit her lip. “When you talked, just now, about my ‘combat experience’, that wasn’t exactly what you were thinking, was it?”

Scott Lang, Ava reflected, would probably have prevaricated now. His instinct was always to avoid causing hurt, even where hurt couldn’t reasonably be avoided. Hope van Dyne was a businesswoman: in an argument, every bit as much as in a fight, she knew when she had to fold. Her gaze didn’t falter.

“No,” she said. “I was thinking of the people that you killed.”

“You see? Janet showed me what a monster I’d become – in the moment she took my proper punishment away.” Ava felt the breeze of the open window on her neck, the warm give of the sun-burnished floorboards beneath her bare feet. “I haven’t earned this.”

“Then call it an advance.” Hope’s hand was gentle, where moments ago it had been vice-like, on Ava’s shoulder. “There’s plenty of good for a Ghost to do in a world like this.”

“I hope so.” Ava looked up. Hope was relieved to see the beginnings of a smile. “Fancy going again, without the false pretences?”

“You bet.” Hope rolled her shoulders. “Maybe _this_ time I’ll show you what my best game looks like.”

“I’m trembling.” Ava grinned outright, and raised her guard. “After all, you’re pretty spry, for a older woman.”

“Spry enough to kick _your_ millennial ass. You ready?”

“I’m waiting.”

FINIS


End file.
